2014 Tomato Growing

Just a few (30+) transplanted and more to go!

Sown later this year as experience has taught me early sowings don't cut the mustard.

Big Boy
Big Zac
San Marzano
Harbinger
and unknown cherry varieties sourced from the US.

 

First Manx Marvel has germinated

 

A few weeks ago I mulched one of my raised beds with some home made compost. Today I've just noticed that there's at least 50 'volunteer' tomato seeds germinated there. Considering they are germinating outside, where we are still getting fairly cold nights (but no frosts), they are doing a damn sight better than the ones I'm molly coddling on windowsills!!

Last year, I let two of these volunteers grow on to maturity - they were in the middle of a butternut squash bed - and I got a good few kilos of fruit!!

 

It's funny you should say that Susieshoe,I don't know if I made this up or I read it in an old gardening book some years back....sometimes I think some plants need to struggle a bit for survival thus making them stronger and more determined to prove us wrong...I've fussed and faffed over plants and don't think I've helped their cause and made life too cozy for them...not saying they don't require our care and attention because that's what gardening is all about but I for one can get carried away with 'mollycoddling' and find sometimes less human intervention works....I probably made this up

 

Agree Lolimac! And this, for me, is one of the elements of gardening that keeps me hooked! Plants were thriving long before any humans got in on the act

 

Forgot about the "Marvels", all my neglected saved seed have germinated.

 

Scrungee that 2.6 kg tomato is incredible! I do poorly on tomatoes lately. Wilt is in my main bed soil so I lost the year before last crop and cannot plant there again for 5 years. They flourished, gorgeous and covered with green fruits, then the whole crop fell over and died in a week. Too late for a new batch and I just did cherry tomatoes in my pots. (We love the yellow pear cherry tomato.)

Last year stink bugs massed. I go organic and most of the tomatoes were ruined. The stinkbugs destroy beans, tomatoes, and some peppers.(are they a problem in England? - they are the worst scourge of all here, almost unkillable organically except by smashing, and they fly off) Their sucking bites leave the fruit hard and they will not ripen. I keep my yard long beans by clapping them and they drop to the ground and get stamped on - but you cannot clap tomatoes and they just fly away if you try to pick them off.

I have better boy, kirn, yellow pear and celebration. Due to late cold weather I had to replant my seed so am behind where I would wish to be, but the better boy are a foot tall because I broke down and bought them. I think I will buy a pack of small tomato plants ($2 at Walmart - a 4 pack) of some determinate kind and can a couple cases of tomatoes, we eat lots of canned tomatoes and do not get the excellent Italian imported canned ones you can get (affordable too) in England - just OK ones; unless you wish to pay big prices.

 

Not got Stinkbugs over here as far as I know Colne, sound scary

Blight usually takes our tomatoes and potatoes though

 

I have a zoology background and try to like all creatures but stinkbugs really have bothered me. I do not mind being bitten by bugs - I am almost immune to it from the 10,000's of bites and stings (really) I have received - but when they wreck my garden; slowly and methodically, and with nothing I can do - then one gets less sympathetic.

but then they have their roll to play too I guess

 

I have 2 Rutgers and 2 Roma I bought last evening (4 pack $2, I mixed them swapping two from a damaged 4 pack) and they will go in where my turnips and broccoli were on the small raised bed. I wish I had started them from seed but things did not work out with most of my pepper and tomato seeds this year. One feels much more gardener like when beginning with seeds instead of basically paying a professional to do that part for you.

 

"Intelligent design" - Yeah, right!! ...

 

Kristen, years ago, when I was a zoology student and used to wonder about ultimate matters. I asked my professor what the point of some nasty bug was and his answer was: "to live for its self - the same as you" And happy Easter, my wife is at church and it is glorious outside. I am planting seed trays of flowers, many of them, today to brighten up the gardens.

 

And a happy peaceful Easter to you Colne. If you would like some of our (GC Tomato Seed swap thread) seeds, I have plenty?
Just PM me,
Jenny

 

Thankyou Namaste, I will.

I have this going in the background:



I was fortunate enough to attend a service given by Pope Paul once. I had to watch the early bit of the above in German because the English was muted. Good thing to watch once a year, big production, big event.

 

I've got Bach's St Matthew Passion on in the background,
Jenny